The European Union announced an oil embargo against Russia on Wednesday, and for the third day now, 27 EU countries have been trying to agree on a sixth package of sanctions, which could include Patriarch Kirill and former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, among others.

Not everything is smooth yet, there are those who disagree. According to Western press reports, Greece and Hungary opposed the inclusion of Patriarch Kirill in the sanctions list, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic do not agree with the terms of the oil embargo, while Greece and Cyprus are also against a ban on the transportation of Russian oil by European tankers.

The European oil embargo is the most radical measure of economic coercion for peace by Vladimir Putin left in reserve by the West.

The oil and gas sector brings Russia up to half of budget revenues and more than half of exports, and it sells 70% of gas and 60% of oil and oil products to Europe. During the two and a half months of the war, the EU paid Russia more than 20 billion euros for oil and over 30 billion euros for gas.

The European Commission proposed a delayed embargo: to abandon Russian oil in six months, and oil products – by the end of the year. Hungary and Slovakia were promised another year extra.

However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban first sent a dissatisfied letter to Brussels, and on Friday said on the radio that one and a half years is not enough for Hungary to rebuild, five are needed, and he is waiting for improved proposals from Brussels, Reuters reports.

If this trade ends today, then the EU may have time to approve the sixth package before the end of the working week, and then we will find out before May 9 who exactly got on the lists and what kind of restrictions will be introduced. Now the package is known only in general terms.

Initially, the draft sanctions list included 58 names, including the patriarch, the family of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and the Russian military responsible for killing civilians in Bucha. However, then four more names were added to it: three employees of the state agency RIA for inciting hatred in opinion columns, as well as Alina Kabaeva, wrote Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg on the eve.

The EU and the US have already imposed sanctions against two daughters of Vladimir Putin. The American press wrote that Kabaeva was struck off the list so as not to anger Putin.

The European Commission proposes to impose sanctions against Kabaeva for close ties with Putin and for the fact that since 2014 she has headed the board of directors of the National Media Group, which unites newspapers and TV channels, France Presse writes, citing a draft document.

Ambassadors from 27 countries from early Friday morning again sat down to discuss the proposals of the European Commission – the executive body of the EU.

Reuters reports that among the indulgences there is a delay of the ban on the transportation of Russian oil by European tankers for three months, and not for a month, as planned, as well as subsidies to countries for which the refusal of energy from Russia is fraught with the cost of rebuilding factories and pipelines.

According to the agency, the European Commission has offered Hungary and Slovakia another year of deferment of the oil embargo – until the end of 2024, and the Czech Republic – until the middle of the same year.

“I am sure that we will introduce this package. If it takes another day, then another day. But we are moving in the right direction,” said the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday morning.